PHOTOS: Pluto's icy mountains surprise NASA

A new photo reveals the icy mountains of the dwarf planet. The close-up near the planet’s equator shows a mountain range with peaks as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 metres).

Scientists believe the mountains formed no more than 100 million years ago, which is extremely young compared to our 4.56-billion-year-old solar system. One of the youngest surfaces scientists have ever seen in the solar system, the image suggests the surface may still be geologically active.

Pluto cannot be heated through gravitational interactions so the evidence of mountains suggests some other process must be generating the peaks.

A new photo of Pluto’s largest moon Charon also shows a youthful and varied terrain. Scientists are surprised by its lack of craters.